Miscellany: InfoLadies, what makes a library, MCCSC librarians saved, and videos

June 8, 2010

Whew! Life is finally starting to settle down again after the move. I have so much to talk about! Let’s start with some miscellaneous things that have happened recently.

Near the end of May, Cory Doctorow made a post on BoingBoing about the InfoLadies of Bangladesh. Women ride from village to village on bicycles bringing medical supplies and a netbook to help people with their information needs.

“Ask me about the pest that’s infecting your crop, common skin diseases, how to seek help if your husband beats you or even how to stop having children, and I may have a solution,” says a confident Akhter.

This kind of transformative access to information is awesome on its own, but it’s especially great in a country like Bangladesh where 36% of people live on less than $1 a day and 90% of women give birth at home with no medical assistance. Read more at the original Guardian article.

The Westbury Book Exchange in Somerset, England is billed as the “smallest library in the world” at Offbeat Earth. An old red telephone booth was purchased for £1 and stocked with books, CDs, and DVDs. People bring books they’ve read to swap with what’s in the booth. I love this community-driven love for literacy, but it’s not really a library, is it? The books aren’t in any particular order, much less being cataloged or classified, and there’s no professional staff available to help you find what you want. But it’s gotten me thinking about what makes a library a library–and it’s cute!

I wrote earlier about disappearing school libraries across the country and wanted to follow up with some good news: all fifteen media specialist positions in the Monroe County (IN) school district have been restored for the 2010-2011 school year. All funding for extracurriculars and the stipends for coaches were cut, but some classroom teachers will also have their jobs back.

There’s still time to apply for YALSA’s mentoring program if you haven’t yet. Experienced public and school librarians working with teens will be paired up with newcomers to the field for mutual learning, encouragement, and awesomeness. Applications are due by the end of this month, so if you’re interested but haven’t finished your application, be sure to do so soon.

And finally, a couple videos. As part of the promotion for GUYS READ: FUNNY BUSINESS, which comes out this September, HarperCollins put together “The Joke,” in which Jon Scieszka, Mac Barnett, Adam Rex, David Yoo, Paul Feig, Kate DiCamillo, Christopher Paul Curtis, Eoin Colfer, Jack Gantos, David Lubar, and Jeff Kinney–all contributors to the collection–tell a joke about a new kid in school.

I like that the Internet makes authors so much more accessible than they ever have been. There’s exciting stuff like being able to read their blogs, follow them on Twitter, or watch their video blogs, but even just things like this where you get to see what they look like personalizes them in a way that I didn’t really have growing up.

Some students and faculty members at the University of Washington’s Information School show off the braininess and sexiness of library and information science work in “Librarians do Gaga.”

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Tags: children's books, guys read, indiana, information access, library cuts, miscellany, news, school libraries, underserved populations, videos, ya lit, yalsa